Feature extraction of ECG signal

This paper deals with new approaches to analyse electrocardiogram (ECG) signals for extracting useful diagnostic features. Initially, elimination of different types of noise is carried out using maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT) and universal thresholding. Next, R-peak fiducial points are detected from these noise free ECG signals using discrete wavelet transform along with thresholding. Then, extraction of other features, viz., Q waves, S waves, P waves, T waves, P wave onset and offset points, T wave onset and offset points, QRS onset and offset points are identified using some rule based algorithms. Eventually, other important features are computed using the above extracted features. The software developed for this purpose has been validated by extensive testing of ECG signals acquired from the MIT-BIH database. The resulting signals and tabular results illustrate the performance of the proposed method. The sensitivity, predictivity and error of beat detection are 99.98%, 99.97% and 0.05%, respectively. The performance of the proposed beat detection method is compared to other existing techniques, which shows that the proposed method is superior to other methods.